The jobs of Britain's youngest workers are already being hollowed out by artificial intelligence, with employment for 22- to 25-year-olds falling 12.8% in the most exposed sectors since ChatGPT became widespread, according to Stanford University analysis of US data.
Nobel prize-winning economists have warned the world “must act now” to ensure AI leads to rising living standards rather than large-scale job displacement. Last month London businesses told the government they were struggling to find the skills they need as AI disrupts the jobs market.
“Young workers suffer 12.8% job losses in AI-exposed sectors since ChatGPT launch, Stanford data shows.”
The Stanford study, using four years of employment data by age across occupations most and least exposed to AI, found a 2.7% overall hit to young workers' jobs since the chatbot launched. In finance, software and creative industries – the roles most affected – the figure rose to 12.8%. Some economists dispute the findings, arguing that interest rate rises could explain the decline.
Online job postings have also been dented since ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) appeared. The data shows a clear pattern: three years ago LLMs could only reliably complete tasks that take humans seconds or minutes. Now they handle fairly complex jobs requiring an hour, such as finding problems in a cryptocurrency contract or developing and streamlining the model itself – a task that would take a person several hours.
The next generation of models could start to entirely develop themselves within a year, the BBC analysis found. A similar shift is emerging in financial analysis, early-stage legal work and even entry-level creative roles.
“Flat is the new up,” investors are told when judging workforce size, as company bosses divert vast sums into AI agents – virtual workers designed to replace specific roles, some relatively skilled. If even half the claims about these tools prove true, the impact on careers across sectors will come sooner than many expect.